Page 56 of Depraved Boys

Sebastian grimaced. “That was Leo.”

Leopold hunched his shoulders. “I deserved that dick punch, and it was wrong of me to avenge it. I shouldn’t have accosted you while you were half-naked.”

“What he means to say is that he shouldn’t have accosted you at all,” Sebastian snapped at his friend. He turned to me, eyes softening. “It was stupid of me to let Leo bully you by proxy. Petty and immature.”

“Why do it in the first place?” I asked.

He lowered his gaze. “Bitterness that you wouldn’t give me the benefit of the doubt, I suppose. When we met, the last thing on my mind was that pull-a-pig game, and I have never considered Geraldine’s ten-thousand pound bet to take your virginity.”

“He’d do it for free.” Leopold knelt next to Sebastian and gazed up into my eyes. “And so would I.”

Sebastian elbowed his friend in the gut, making him double over. My lips tugged into a reluctant smile. Strangely, their bizarre and inappropriate double act acted as the distraction I needed from Ashley’s betrayal.

“Where were you?” I asked.

“We went to London to deal with some family business,” replied Sebastian. “It took up the entire weekend and most of Monday.”

My brows rose. “I didn’t know you were related.”

Leopold shrugged. “The Brunswick Bank has been with Garraway Tea since the start. We’re cousins several times over.”

“You make us sound inbred,” muttered Sebastian. He pulled himself to his feet and sank next to me onto the bed. “The queens should never have involved you in their initiation. Even so, they took things too far.”

“We don’t usually drag innocent parties into hazing.” Leopold sat on my other side. “What am I saying? Hazing doesn’t even begin to describe what those girls did.”

Some of the tension around my chest eased at the acknowledgment, and I exhaled a relieved breath.

Their larger, heavier bodies made the mattress sag, and their warmth and intoxicating scents engulfed my senses. I glanced from Sebastian to Leopold. If one looked carefully, they shared some similar features. Both had straight noses, high cheekbones, and strong jaws. But I suppose Leopold was the prettier of the pair and Sebastian the more rugged.

Both boys gazed down at me, and I flushed to be the center of such handsome attention. Guys like Sebastian and Leopold didn’t exist in Cummersdale Comprehensive. And guys like Sebastian and Leopold didn’t give bookworms like me the time of day.

My body temperature rose, and my heart continued its strong, steady beat. If Prakash was in the room, the three of them might overwhelm me and make me hyperventilate.

A tiny part of me who wanted to withhold judgment on Corrine’s diary and the entire pull-a-pig business wondered what it would be like to take turns kissing Sebastian and Leopold. I already knew the feel of Sebastian’s hard body and insistent lips against mine, but would the experience be more intense if they both wrapped their arms around my body and pressed kisses to my skin?

Heat bloomed between my legs, and I gulped down a deep, calming breath. Now wasn’t the time to think about boys. I had to say something to get my mind off kissing them.

“Why haze people at all?” I asked.

Leopold raised a shoulder. “It’s a rite of passage, I suppose.”

“I can’t believe you’d put people through that kind of humiliation.”

“Not us.” Leopold raised his palms. “That’s the Knights of Brittas.”

“The football, rugby and cricket team members,” added Sebastian.

“You’re not a knight?”

Leopold snorted. “Kings are made, not hazed.”

I shook my head. It didn’t matter that they disagreed with the queens. Those terrible bitches could have gotten me killed with the amount of alcohol they forced down my throat, and nothing had been done yet to discipline them.

“We thought you’d be hungry.” Sebastian stood and offered me his arm.

“‘I’ll have dinner with Cormac.”

“He’s not around,” replied Sebastian. “Didn’t you hear? Some second years tried to stuff raw chicken down a boy’s throat, and he’s helping with the fallout.”